The Difference Between Agent and Harness
BraceSproul · x · 2026-07-14
This reply explains the difference between harness and agent:
- The example analogizes Iron Man to an agent, the human to a model, and the armor to a harness.
- The author points out that over time, models will absorb more and more harness functionalities.
- They also use "gpt -> codex" as an analogy to illustrate the shifting boundary between models and external execution layers.
More from coding & agent
- Gergely Orosz: Shipping 10x PRs With AI Agents, Sites Fill With Small Regressions — ducha_aiki · 2026-09-11
- Same Echo Maze prompt, three frontier models: all passed visually but shipped the same hidden bug — eyishazyer · 2026-09-11
- Astra storyboards plus Minimax H3 per-shot generation boost video success rates — Hailuo_AI · 2026-09-11
- Codex tip: use Sol with Astra and Luna sub-agents to save usage — pvncher · 2026-09-11
- agents-best-practices: a provider-neutral Agent Skill for designing and auditing agentic harnesses — tom_doerr · 2026-09-11
- Cognition's SWE-2 uses a KKT duality argument in RL to shift the effort Pareto curve — YouJiacheng · 2026-09-11